Plot

A documentary observing every day life during one day and one night in Los Angeles, California in the Fall of 1966. Mostly shot with long lenses contributing to candid feel and reality.

SYMPHONY OF A CITY: LOS ANGELES 1966 visualizes a "time capsule" montage moment in time, viewing Los Angeles, California at work and at play, during a typical day and night, circa 1966. Locations viewed include Beverly Hills, Hollywood Boulevard, Sunset Boulevard, Downtown Los Angeles, MacArthur Park, and many locations that include visits to cemeteries, freeways, Santa Monica Beach, and activities occurring in the homes of individuals as well as on the streets. The opportunity to view people unaware of the camera is poignant. We see a side of individuals that make their reason to be important and expressive during a time when life in America was different in the 20th Century than today. However, there are similarities to be viewed and discovered within the frames of this 18 minute documentary by filmmaker Phil Gries who shot this film when he was 23 years old....a graduate student at UCLA. Renown, Director of Photography Floyd Crosby was Phil Gries' instructor.

This documentary, filmed before the advent of Cable Television, home answer phones, beepers, cellular phones, the internet, and social media, represents the last moments of "innocence" in the USA before events in the late 1960's would forever change the way we lived and behaved. Soon after SYMPHONY OF A CITY: LOS ANGELES 1966 was completed the people of America would experience events related to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Civil Rights marches, riots in inner cities, and the increasing protests of American Citizens regarding America's involvement in the Viet Nam war.